


Don't Lose Me, Don't Let Me Stray

by The_lazy_eye



Series: Tumblr Prompts [2]
Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Fear, First Kiss, Halloween, Haunted Houses, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 09:56:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16156694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_lazy_eye/pseuds/The_lazy_eye
Summary: “Help me! Help! Someone!”He threw his body again, slamming into the door and pulling at the handle. She was closing in and would have him shortly. He could make out the blood on her face and the rips in her clothes.“Help! Please!” his screams for help devolved into just screams.





	Don't Lose Me, Don't Let Me Stray

**Author's Note:**

> "Can I request Reddie in a haunted house/ corn maze?"
> 
> Yes, yes you can.

Holy fucking shit. When he agreed to go to this Halloween carnival bullshit this was not what he signed up for. He expected games, some pumpkin or cinnamon themed foods, maybe some spooky children’s rides. What he did not expect was to walk into a real, bonafide haunted house – like with gory actors and jump scares and spooky music and shit. No. Hell no.

There were a few attempts to push the group past the horrifying house and onto other attractions. The first had been when Bill saw it and got excited. Like, he’s talking too excited. Bill was practically jumping out of his skin, moving about the other Losers and pointing to the creepy, decerped house. The others made noises of interest but he quickly cut in, demanding some food before they really got to it. The second time he managed to avoid it was with a quick joke and a diversion to a ride. Ben absolutely loved the tilt-a-whirl and luckily it was right in their line of sight. He beelined to it and they killed a good twenty minutes waiting and then riding together, all of them managing to jam into a single pod and probably breaking several safety rules in the process.

Whatever. It was a carnival. Nothing about it was truly safe.

The third time they passed by it he wasn’t so lucky. Bill had insisted they go in and Bev backed him up. The two of them were so confident, so fierce in their leadership they could get any Loser to do almost anything. After everyone conceded he knew he had no choice. It was time to either pull up his big-boy pants or get made fun of for the rest of his natural born life. This wouldn’t be too bad, right?

Wrong.

Inside was awful. The carnival was in a field in the middle of two residential neighborhoods. The field was several acers and was sold to the township by a distant relative of the previous owner after he had passed away. The house the man owned had since fallen to decay and instead of tearing it down, it was maintained just enough to retain stability and was used every year for the annual Derry Halloween Carnival.

The house was three stories tall with two main staircases inside of it. It made for easy travel through the haunted rooms and between floors. The inside was dusty, covered in tacky Halloween decorations and fake blood, and had several figurines, coffins, and false doors built in various rooms. The lighting was just dark enough and the music just creepy enough to really make the whole thing feel real. Plus, the actors were really good at makeup. The encountered a man who was supposed to have part of his face ripped off by a monster and fuck it was convincing. He had nearly shit himself when he saw.

Yeah. Richie Tozier did not do haunted houses.

They made their way up to the second level. There was a room to their left and to their right. One of them had a door to the room further down the hall and would spill them out into a living room with another set of stairs, taking them to the top floor. That living room could also be accessed by taking the long hallway straight ahead and going through a door on the right. They could have gone straight to the top, but where the fun in that, he guesses.

Maybe not dying from heart failure at age 16.

They went for the room on the right. This, apparently, was a huge fucking mistake. Richie was trying to take up the middle. He squeezed between Mike and Ben, the largest of the Losers. They were muscled up from football and farm work and Richie prayed they would keep him safe. Bev and Bill brought of the front, Eddie and Stan in the back.

When they crossed the doorway to the large, the door slammed shut and the room was plunged into darkness. No one could hear Richie’s screams mixed in with the others and fuck was he thankful. There was a maniacal laugh track sounding through the room and the sounds of crashing and banging, mixed with the sounds of actual laughter. Was that one of them? Was that an actor? Was that his inevitable murderer lurking in the room?

The actors were not allowed to touch them unless they had a glow in the dark band on, which Bev, Bill, and Mike had opted for. Mike was grabbed and gently pulled away from Richie and he could feel the space to his right become vacant. His heart dropped into his stomach. The lights flashed on and among the Losers he could see three people with painted faces running about the room. Another one had Bev, who was shrieking and laughing while he spun her. She was nodding to something he was saying to her, he would later find out this was the actor asking her if she was okay with what he was doing. He appreciated it when she told him but in the moment he was losing his shit. Everything in the room became a flurry. Richie spun and screamed and the lights flashed. The actors were messing with Bill, Bev, and Mike and the four remaining Losers were running around. One actor came toward Richie and he backed himself against a wall, his screams lost in the noise of the room. The lights flashed off again and the door swung open. The screams and laughter spilled out into the hall, along with the majority of the Losers. The ministrations in this room seemed to be finished and this was obviously not the room with the passage they were looking for, so they spilled into the hall and across into the opposite room. In the chaos their lineup had been scrambled so Richie, terrified and disoriented, had somehow taken up the back by himself.

It was here where shit really started to go south for him. He was shaking as he exited from the dark room to the dim hall. His shitty vision mixed with the lack of light caused him to shoulder check the doorframe, lose his balance, and lose his glasses.

“Uh, guys?” he called, but not loud enough. They kept walking. “Guys! Wait! I dropped my glasses.”

Richie frantically pawed at the ground, desperate to find them. The Losers didn’t hear him and kept forward into the next room, effectively abandoning him in the hallway of an abandoned-turned-haunted house.

Richie continued to scramble. He could hear the next group coming up the stairs and if he didn’t find his glasses before they reached the top they would likely get stepped on. And so would he.

“fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Richie chanted like a prayer as he crawled and patted the ground. He was moving steadily up the hallway, slow enough to be thorough but fast enough to show his nerve. His hands were shaking and his heart was going to beat out of his chest.

“I’m gonna die holy fucking shit why did I – yes!” he felt his hands connect with the cool metal of his frames and he closed his fingers around them and slipped them onto his face. His world came back into a focused, dark grey. Well, he still couldn’t see but at least it was somewhat clear.

He stood on shaking legs and spun around. He had two options, double back and move through the rooms alone or cut through the hall to the stairs and try to meet up with the others on the second floor. He chose the latter, darting forward quickly to make up for lost time. If he couldn’t find them he would have to do the rest of the house alone and that would not end well.

He was coming up on the door that led to the room with the stairs. Richie could see it with the faint light from the window on his left. He could simply open it, slip through, and meet up with the others. Behind him he could hear screams, in front of him was faint, eerie music.

As he stepped forward, the curtain from the window blew out and a woman jumped off the sill and landed next to him. This caused another terrified scream to rip from Richie’s throat. He stumbled to his right, blood running cold, before bolting forward. He grabbed the door and tried for the handle but the sweat from his hands made him lose his grip. The woman was walking towards him slowly now, her long black hair hanging in front of her face and her arms stretched toward him. Realistically, he knew she couldn’t touch him but that didn’t stop the panic, the fear.

He tried again, still unable to make the knob turn. His stomach dropped, he felt like he was going to throw up. He looked her way and saw her closer now, walking leisurely, arms still outstretched. He threw his body against the door. Fuck this, he would break this entire house down just to get out of here.

“Help me! Help! Someone!”

He threw his body again, slamming into the door and pulling at the handle. She was closing in and would have him shortly. He could make out the blood on her face and the rips in her clothes. Fuck, he should have gone through the room.

“Help! Please!” his screams for help devolved into just screams.

She reached out, fingers inches from his shoulder. She was saying something to him but he couldn’t hear it over the pounding in his ears and his own terrified voice bouncing down the hall. He moved to throw himself against the door one more time but before he hit the wood the door swung up and he flew through the other side into a warm, firm body.

The panic didn’t stop and neither did his screaming. Who the fuck was he up against? Another monster? A ghost? Was this the end for him, trapped between two bloodied, beaten beasts looking for revenge in an old, worn down house in the middle of a field?

“Richie! It’s okay! I’ve got you!”

He knew that voice. He stopped his screaming long enough to look up and find concerned, grey eyes looking down at him. He didn’t realize he was crying until it room quieted down. No one else was making noise anymore. It was just him and his screams of panic and the faint, haunted music.

“Fuck, is he okay?” the actor from behind his said. “I didn’t realize how scared he was in the hall, it was so dark. Does he need to be escorted out?”

Richie’s breath was coming quick now, the kind of quick Eddie’s does when he has one of his asthma attacks.

“I’ll take him down. C’mon Rich,” Eddie said, his hands firm anchors around Richie’s shoulders.

Together they cut out the window the actress was in before and down the fire escape exit that other carnival goers took once they finished walking the house. The fire escape made for easy exit and entrance should someone need to get in or out quickly.

When they were out Eddie was a grounding force by Richie’s side. He felt instantly better, safe and guarded. Eddie did that for him. He brought him back to Earth.

“Sorry we lost you back there. What happened?” Eddie asked, voice soft and gentle.

“Dropped my glasses,” was all Richie could mumble in response. He was embarrassed as fuck. Fuck that house. Fuck that actress. Fuck this entire carnival.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were gone until it was too late.” Eddie whispered. Richie felt Eddie’s hand slip into his and squeeze. The gentle touch made Richie’s knees weak. He brushed it off, saying it was adrenaline when they sat down, but couldn’t stop himself from leaning on Eddie’s shoulder. Eddie welcoming him, wrapping his arm around Richie’s shoulder and pressing his lips into his hair. It wasn’t a kiss, but Richie felt his entire body heat up. If he wanted to he could easily move his head up and kiss Eddie. It would be simple. It would be right. It would be absolutely perfect. Richie didn’t even realize he wanted it until the though danced through his mind.

Yeah, kissing Eddie would be perfect. It would be a great way to make up for the lousy half hour he spent in that hellhole.

Eddie wouldn’t like that though. Not here, not in front of all of these people. Not ever.

After a moment, Eddie whispered into Richie’s hair, “I’ll never let anything hurt you, Rich.” And right before Eddie pulled back Richie swore he felt a slight kiss, just a small purse of the lips against his head. When he looked up, Eddie was still right there. So close they were breathing the same air. Anyone could mistake them for already kissing if they didn’t look close enough.

Richie felt Eddie squeeze his shoulder.

“Me neither,” he whispered back. Tension thickened around them.           

He saw Eddie’s eyes drop to his lips before he felt the kiss. It was so quick he couldn’t process it, just a simple press of Eddie’s lips against his, but he blasted off. He felt his soul astral-project out of his. body, through the night sky, and into space. The stars spun around him and the atmosphere lit his skin on fire. Before his brain could catch up he leaned back in and slotted their lips together again, bringing his hands up to cup Eddie’s face. They stayed like that for a moment, caught in a gentle kiss. Richie pulled back first.

“I would go through a thousand more of those hell houses if it meant I got to do that again.”

Eddie just chuckled before saying, “Don’t worry. You won’t have to,” and kissed him again.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a prompt I filled on Tumblr months ago for Tinyarmedtrex. I'm finally posting it here in honor of October! It is, what the kids call, okay!
> 
> Send my any spooky prompts @ reddie-for-anything.tumblr.com!


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